Restoring the Old Girl

House hunting and all things colour
I love magazines and there are some great ones on the shelf at the moment - competition is obviously fierce. They are all awash with colour, which I just love to see. I think Vogue Australia's March edition takes the cake though.

This look above makes a great photo, but I don't think it's something anyone should attempt at home.

Prada is getting in on the act too. I just love this hat, although unfortunately, you can hardly see it in this shot.

This collection below is by a Brazilian designer called Alexandre Herchcovitch. Mad colour!! That purple satin pantsuit is just what I need for dropping the kids to school.

Does anyone remember the Australian designer called Linda Jackson? I was too young to wear her clothes but I'd love to own something of hers.
Her pieces have become very difficult to come by and are quite the collector's item these days. This photo is from a magazine, which paid a tribute to her a few years ago.

With our birthday celebrations having officially ended this morning at 11.30am, we jumped in the car and headed off house hunting. We're not looking to buy of course, but for quite a few years my husband and I have had the seed of an idea to build a new house in the Frank Lloyd Wright style.
Frank is no longer with us, but his designs left quite an impression.

This one below is more in the style that we are thinking. Materials used include brick, narrow weatherboards, huge glass panels and stacked stone.

I'm sure I had read a long time ago about one or two 1960s houses in either Indooroopilly or St Lucia, which were built in this style, particularly with blue stone. We looked and looked but couldn't find what we were looking for. Has anyone else heard of these houses or have I just dreamt it?
I've started a style file of 'looks' for this pipedream house.
These houses below are great examples (to me) of 60s architecture. Most of them are in the desert community of Palm Springs in California.

This is what I'm thinking for the interior fit out.

This interior below is from a house in Darling Point, Sydney which belonged to an architect who was influenced by Lloyd Wright. His name was Neville Gruzman. It recently went up for sale.The living room, naturally lit by rows of timber windows and glass doors, was once described by Opera House architect Jorn Utzon as, “the best living room in Australia’’.

A fellow architect who worked with Gruzman for 10 years had this reply when asked if mid-century post-modern houses stood up to the test of time.
“Modernism was about incorporating the elements, natural ventilation and connecting the inside to the outside. I’m influenced by that, definitely.
“There was a modesty of scale in the mid-century housing. We are building houses now that are double the size of homes in the 1950s, with half the people living in them. When you consider the financial and environmental cost of these larger houses, we can learn a lot from modernism about how to live luxuriously in a smaller space.’’
Hooray! The concept of bigger not necessarily being better is something many of us are yet to grasp.
I think we probably will get to build this house one day, although I think you could safely say our hands are full at the moment.
Still, I'd better learn how to mix a martini and start a collection of patio dresses....it's important to look the part.